CN116391409A

CN116391409A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN116391409A
Application number: CN202080106346.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李铁; 张永平; 冯淑兰; 刘晓晴; 张希
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-10-23
Filing date: 2020-10-23
Publication date: 2023-07-04
Also published as: WO2022082780A1

Abstract

A method and apparatus for communication, the method comprising: the terminal equipment receives first information, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, the first time interval is the time required by the terminal equipment to switch from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, i is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and i is a positive integer; the terminal equipment adopts N antenna panels to transmit N groups of reference signals, and the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals. The terminal equipment comprises N antenna panels, wherein N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the field of wireless communication, in particular to a communication method and device.

Background

In the 3GPP Rel-15 version, the antenna panel of the network device or the antenna panel of the terminal device is transparent. The antenna panel of the network device is transparent and can be understood as that the antenna panel state terminal device of the network device is invisible, and similarly, the antenna panel of the terminal device is transparent and can be understood as that the antenna panel state terminal device of the terminal device is also invisible. Wherein the antenna panel states include an active state and an inactive state. How the beams or resources (signals or channels, etc.) are associated with the antenna panel is also entirely dependent on the implementation of the network device or terminal device.

While the beam (pair) switching involves not only the beam switching of the network device but also the beam switching of the terminal device. When the network device informs the terminal device of switching the beam, and because the antenna panel of the terminal device is transparent, the network device cannot determine whether the terminal device switches the antenna panels simultaneously in the switching process of the beam, that is, the switching process of the beam of the terminal device may be the switching between different beams in the same antenna panel or the switching between different beams of different antenna panels.

Wherein the time required for switching between different beams of different antenna panels is mainly the time required for switching the antenna panels between different antenna panels. Wherein the antenna panel switching between different antenna panels includes both the case of switching from one active antenna panel to another active antenna panel (i.e. antenna panel switching between active antenna panels) and the case of switching from an active antenna panel to an inactive antenna panel. Where antenna panel switching between active antenna panels requires a few us, typically a negligible time. Antenna panel switching between active antenna panels to inactive antenna panels includes both actions of antenna panel activation and antenna panel switching. Thus, the time required for antenna panel switching from an active antenna panel to an inactive antenna panel, whether a terminal device or a network device, includes the time required for antenna panel activation and the time required for antenna panel switching between active antenna panels. Typically, antenna panel activation requires around 2-3ms, and thus antenna panel switching from an active antenna panel to an inactive antenna panel requires 2-3ms plus a few us times. Most scenarios of the current protocol do not reserve the time required for antenna panel activation. Currently, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a scheme for maintaining a plurality of antenna panels in an active state at the same time for a terminal device will result in higher power consumption of the terminal. Another solution is that the terminal device activates only one antenna panel in order to save power consumption, and this solution may cause the terminal device to fail to communicate with the network device using an appropriate beam pair, which may affect the communication performance.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used for effectively saving the power consumption of terminal equipment when switching between different beams of different antenna panels.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including: the method comprises the steps that a terminal device receives first information, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in an ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in an (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, the first time interval is the time required by the terminal device to switch from an ith antenna panel to an (i+1) th antenna panel, i is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and i is a positive integer; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; the terminal equipment adopts N antenna panels to transmit the N groups of reference signals, and the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.

By adopting the method, the antenna panel training process can be increased in the beam smoothing process, the transmission time interval exists between the last reference signal in the previous group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the next group of reference signals, and the terminal equipment can adapt to the configuration of the network equipment by adjusting the state of the antenna panel, so that the system performance and the power saving trade-off can be achieved.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment receives second information from the network equipment, wherein the second information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a first mode or the terminal equipment is in a second mode; or the terminal equipment sends third information to the network equipment, wherein the third information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a first mode or the terminal equipment is in a second mode; wherein, when the terminal device is in the first mode, inactive antenna panels exist in the N antenna panels; the N antenna panels are all activated when the terminal device is in the second mode.

With the above design, the terminal device may be in the first mode or the second mode, and since the terminal device is in a different mode, the network device may configure the terminal device with the first information according to the mode.

In one possible design, the value of the first time interval is a first preset value when the terminal device is in the first mode, and the value of the first time interval is a second preset value when the terminal device is in the second mode, and the first preset value is greater than the second preset value.

With the above design, since the terminal device can be in the first mode or the second mode, the network device can configure the first time interval for the terminal device according to the mode in which the terminal device is located.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment measures the N groups of reference signals to obtain measurement results; and the terminal equipment determines a target antenna panel from the N antenna panels according to the measurement result.

With the adoption of the design, the terminal equipment can autonomously determine the target antenna panel.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal equipment sends a measurement result to the network equipment; the measurement result is obtained by the terminal equipment measuring the N groups of reference signals; the terminal device receives fourth information from the network device, the fourth information indicating a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels.

With the above design, the network device can indicate the target antenna panel for the terminal device.

In one possible design, the target antenna panel is L of the N antenna panels, L being an integer, the method further comprising: the terminal equipment deactivates the other N-L antenna panels except the target antenna panel.

By adopting the design, the terminal equipment can save the power consumption of the terminal equipment by deactivating the non-target antenna panel.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the terminal device transmits fifth information to the network device, the fifth information indicating the number N of antenna panels included in the terminal device and the number of beams included on each antenna panel.

With the above design, the terminal device can notify the network device of the number N of its own antenna panels and the number of beams included on each antenna panel.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, including: the network equipment sends first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the sending time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, and when the terminal equipment is required to be switched from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, i is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and i is a positive integer; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; the network device transmits the N groups of reference signals on the N time-frequency resources, and the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the network device sends second information to the terminal device, wherein the second information indicates that the terminal device is in a first mode or the terminal device is in a second mode; or the network equipment receives third information sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the third information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a first mode or the terminal equipment is in a second mode; wherein, when the terminal device is in the first mode, inactive antenna panels exist in the N antenna panels; the N antenna panels are all activated when the terminal device is in the second mode.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the network equipment receives a measurement result from the terminal equipment, wherein the measurement result is obtained by measuring the N groups of reference signals by the terminal equipment; the network device sends fourth information to the terminal device, the fourth information indicating a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels.

In one possible design, the target antenna panel is L of the N antenna panels, L being an integer.

In one possible design, the method further comprises: the network device receives fifth information from the terminal device, the fifth information indicating the number N of antenna panels included by the terminal device and the number of beams included on each antenna panel.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, the device including means for performing any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the first aspect, or means for performing any one of the possible designs of the second aspect and the second aspect.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device, including a processor and an interface circuit, where the interface circuit is configured to receive signals from other communication devices than the communication device and transmit signals from the processor to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices than the communication device, and the processor is configured to implement any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the first aspect, or implement any one of the possible designs of the second aspect and the second aspect, through logic circuits or execute code instructions.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implement any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the first aspect or implement any one of the possible designs of the second aspect and the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising a program which, when run on a communication device, causes the communication device to perform any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the first aspect or to perform any one of the possible designs of the second aspect and the second aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating one of beam training processes according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic view of a scenario in which all antenna panels are in an activated state in a beam training process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a scenario in which an antenna panel is in an active state during a beam training process according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart outlining one exemplary method of communication according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a second example of a beam training process according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an antenna panel state of a terminal device in a first model during a beam training process according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a third beam training process provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an antenna panel state of a terminal device in a first model during a beam training process according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a second overview flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a second schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a mobile communication system to which an embodiment of the present application is applied. As shown in fig. 1, the mobile communication system includes a core network device 110, a radio access network device 120, and at least one terminal device (e.g., terminal device 130 and terminal device 140 in fig. 1). The terminal equipment is connected with the wireless access network equipment in a wireless mode, and the wireless access network equipment is connected with the core network equipment in a wireless or wired mode. The core network device and the radio access network device may be separate physical devices, or may integrate the functions of the core network device and the logic functions of the radio access network device on the same physical device, or may integrate the functions of part of the core network device and part of the radio access network device on one physical device. The terminal device may be fixed in position or may be movable. Fig. 1 is only a schematic diagram, and other network devices may be further included in the communication system, for example, a wireless relay device and a wireless backhaul device may also be included, which are not shown in fig. 1. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of core network devices, radio access network devices, and terminal devices included in the mobile communication system.

The terminal equipment is connected with the wireless access network equipment in a wireless mode, so that the terminal equipment is accessed into the mobile communication system. The radio access network device may be a base station (base station), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5G mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system, etc.; the present invention may also be a module or unit that performs a function of a base station part, for example, a Central Unit (CU) or a Distributed Unit (DU). The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the wireless access network equipment. In the present application, the radio access network device is simply referred to as a network device, and if no special description is given, the network devices refer to the radio access network devices.

The terminal device may also be referred to as a terminal, user Equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. The terminal device may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a virtual reality terminal device, an augmented reality terminal device, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned operation, a wireless terminal in teleoperation, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation security, a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home, or the like. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the terminal equipment.

Network devices and terminal devices may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; the device can be deployed on the water surface; but also on aerial planes, balloons and satellites. The embodiment of the application does not limit the application scene of the network equipment and the terminal equipment.

The network device and the terminal device can communicate through the licensed spectrum, can also communicate through the unlicensed spectrum, and can also communicate through the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum at the same time. The network device and the terminal device may communicate with each other through a frequency spectrum of 6 gigahertz (GHz) or less, may communicate through a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more, and may communicate using a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or less and a frequency spectrum of 6GHz or more at the same time. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used between the network device and the terminal device.

In order to meet the three-major-scenario requirements, a new air interface (NR) of 5G adopts a low-frequency band compared to a long-term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) of 4G, and a new high-frequency band (generally considered to be 6G or more), such as a 28GHz, 39GHz or 60GHz band, is added. High frequencies are introduced to achieve larger bandwidths, higher transmission rates. Due to the high frequency, the signal may experience severe fading during spatial propagation. Therefore, the 5G NR obtains good directional gain by adopting Beamforming (BF) technology, so as to improve directional power in the transmitting direction, improve signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (signal to interference plus noise radio, SINR) of the receiving end, and further improve system performance. In the 5G NR research process, hybrid beamforming (hybrid beamforming, HBF) techniques including digital beamforming and analog beamforming are finally employed in consideration of cost and performance tradeoffs. In the implementation of beamforming technology, an antenna panel (antenna panel) is a core component. The beam is transmitted or received through the antenna panel. In a 5G NR deployment implementation, since directional beams are employed, both network devices and terminal devices are deployed using multiple antenna panels in order to meet wide area coverage. Particularly for terminal equipment, antenna panel deployment is more important to performance impact in order to meet coverage and with limited space and cost savings.

Because both the network device and the terminal device adopt the hybrid beamforming technology, the problem of transmit-receive beam management caused by the hybrid beamforming technology becomes a central problem in the process of 5G NR standardization discussion. Through several discussions, the content of beam management is eventually standardized in the first release 3GPP Rel-15 of 5G NR. The framework standardized for beam management includes beam training, beam measurement and reporting, individual signal or channel beam indication, and the like.

The following is a brief description of uplink and downlink signals or channel beam indications, respectively. For physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) beams, configuring a beam resource pool with higher layer radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) signaling, and activating one of the beams to indicate the PDCCH beam through medium access control cell (MAC control element, MAC CE) signaling; for PDSCH beams, configuring a beam resource pool by adopting high-layer RRC signaling, activating a beam subset containing a plurality of beams by MAC-CE signaling, and finally triggering one beam of the beam subset by DCI to indicate the PDSCH beams; for beams used for transmitting periodic and aperiodic channel state information reference signals (channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS), indicated by RRC signaling; for beams used for transmitting semi-persistent CSI-RS, indicated by MAC-CE; for PUCCH beams, configuring a beam resource pool by adopting high-layer RRC signaling, and activating one beam to indicate the PUCCH beam through MAC-CE signaling; for PUSCH beam indication, indicating a beam for transmitting sounding reference signals (sounding reference signal, SRS) by an SRS resource indication (SRS resource indicator, SRI) associated therewith; for SRS beams used for transmission periods and aperiodic, indicated by RRC signaling; the RRC signaling indication may be employed for the beam used to transmit the semi-persistent SRS or may be indicated by MAC-CE signaling.

Wherein the antenna panel is a logic entity, and how the physical antenna is mapped to the logic entity is determined by the product implementation. The antenna panel ID may be defined such that at least the antenna panel of the terminal device is visible to the network device, and thus the network device may indicate or obtain the antenna panel status of the terminal device based on this ID.

The beam training includes a transmit-receive beam scanning process for the network device and the terminal device. The objective is to find a beam pair, i.e. comprising one transmit beam and one receive beam. The gain of the received signal by the network device and the terminal device is only optimized if the transmit beam direction and the receive beam direction are aligned. The beam training or scanning procedure is briefly described as follows:

the downlink beam training process is shown in fig. 2.

P-1 procedure (i.e. procedure of coarse alignment of beams): the gNB covers an area in a beam scanning mode, and the UE is respectively paired with the beam of the gNB in a beam receiving scanning mode and performs measurement and reporting. The gNB obtains an initial transmit beam based on the P1 procedure, and the UE obtains an initial receive beam through the P1 procedure (or the gNB indication). To expedite the P1 procedure, the gNB and UE typically select a coarse beam scan.

P-2 procedure (i.e. procedure of fine tuning the gNB transmit beam): and the gNB scans the fine transmission beam based on the initial transmission beam obtained in the P1 process, and the UE performs pairing measurement and reporting through the initial receiving beam obtained in the P1 process (or indicated by the gNB). The gNB obtains a fine hair beam based on the P2 procedure. Only the identification of the P2 procedure is described in the procedure protocol, i.e. when the flag bit (reply=off), the UE assumes that the gNB sends a different beam, other configurations and procedures are mastered by the gNB.

P-3 procedure (i.e. procedure of fine tuning UE receive beam): the gNB obtains the fixed transmission of the fine transmission beam based on the P2 process, the UE scans the fine reception beam by obtaining the coarse beam through the P2 process, and performs pairing measurement, and the UE obtains the fine reception beam of the UE through the P3 process. Only the identification of the P3 procedure is described in the procedure protocol, i.e. when the flag bit (reply=on), the UE assumes that the same beam is sent by the gNB, other configurations and procedures being mastered by the gNB.

Uplink beam training process (similar to downlink beam training process):

u-1 procedure (i.e. coarse alignment procedure) is that UE covers an area in a transmitting beam scanning mode, gNB pairs with transmitting beams of UE respectively in a receiving beam scanning mode and measures. The gNB obtains an initial receiving beam through the U1 process, and the UE obtains an initial starting beam according to gNB configuration. To expedite the U1 procedure, the gNB and UE typically select a coarse beam scan.

And the U-2 process (namely, the process of finely adjusting the gNB receiving beam) is that the UE performs fixed transmission according to the initial transmitting beam configured by the gNB, the gNB performs fine receiving beam scanning through the initial receiving beam obtained in the U1 process, performs pairing measurement and selects a proper fine receiving beam. The U2 procedure may be considered when the gNB configures the same transmit beam to the UE for different reference signals.

And the U-3 process (namely, the process of fine tuning the UE transmitting beam) is that the UE scans the fine transmitting beam according to the initial transmitting beam configured by the gNB, the gNB performs pairing measurement through the fine receiving beam obtained in the U2 process, and the proper UE fine receiving beam is selected. The U3 procedure may be considered when the gNB configures different transmit beams for different reference signals of the UE.

In the above process, when the CSI-RS configuration repetition is 'ON', the terminal assumes that the transmission beams of the gnbs corresponding to all CSI-RS in one CSI-RS set (CSI-RS se) t are the same; when the CSI-RS configuration repetition is 'OFF', the terminal does not assume that the transmit beams of the gnbs corresponding to all CSI-RS in one CSI-RS set are the same.

Currently, before training starts, the terminal equipment cannot predict whether the activation and switching time of the antenna panels is reserved between different resource groups, and meanwhile, in order to meet the coverage requirement, all the antenna panels need to be trained, so that a plurality of antenna panels need to be activated simultaneously, and more power consumption of the terminal equipment is caused, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment is not beneficial to saving; in addition, the simultaneous activation of a plurality of antenna panels for a long period of time may even cause a problem of overheating of the terminal, as shown in fig. 3, in which the antenna panel 1, the antenna panel 2, and the antenna panel 3 are all in an activated state. Or when the network device configures the coarse beam training P1, the terminal device activates only one antenna panel to perform beam training for power saving due to some reasons, such as power consumption, overheating, hardware processing constraint, etc., so that the system performance may be reduced, as shown in fig. 4, the antenna panel 1 and the antenna panel 3 are in an inactive state (or an inactive state), and only the antenna panel 2 is in an active state.

Based on this, the embodiment of the application provides a communication method, which is used for effectively saving the power consumption of the terminal equipment when the switching between different beams of different antenna panels is realized. According to the embodiment of the application, different beam training modes are designed, so that the comprehension of complexity, power consumption, heat dissipation and system performance of the comprehensive terminal is achieved. The terminal device includes N antenna panels, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and the method shown in fig. 5 is applicable to the downlink beam training process, and the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 may be applied before the P1 process. The method comprises the following steps:

s501: the network device sends first information to the terminal device, the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the sending time interval of the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, the first time interval is the time required by the terminal device to switch from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, and i is a positive integer. The first information may be carried by RRC signaling, for example.

S502: the network device transmits N sets of reference signals. Correspondingly, S502 may be further described as that the terminal device receives N sets of reference signals on N time-frequency resources by using N antenna panels, where the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N sets of reference signals.

Exemplary, the ith group of reference signals includes K _i And reference signals. The network equipment adopts K on the ith time-frequency resource _i The terminal device adopts the receiving wave beam on the ith antenna panel to receive the network device on the ith time-frequency resource and adopts K _i Reference signals transmitted by the respective transmit beams. The ith time-frequency resource is the time-frequency resource where the ith group of reference signals are located. The (i+1) -th group of reference signals includes K _i+1 And reference signals. The network device adopts K on the (i+1) th time-frequency resource _i+1 The terminal device adopts the receiving wave beam on the (i+1) th antenna panel to receive the network device on the (i+1) th time-frequency resource to adopt K _i+1 Reference signals transmitted by the respective transmit beams. The i+1th time-frequency resource is the time-frequency resource where the i+1th group of reference signals are located. The transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the 1 st reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is the first time interval. Wherein K is _i And K _i+1 Is a positive integer.

The first time interval is an interval between a last OFDM symbol in a time domain resource where a last reference signal in the i-th group of reference signals is located and a first OFDM symbol in a time domain resource where a 1 st reference signal in the i+1-th group of reference signals is located.

In some embodiments, the terminal device may also send fifth information to the network device, the fifth information indicating the number N of antenna panels included by the terminal device and the number of beams included on each antenna panel. The network device may determine the first information according to the number N of antenna panels included in the terminal device and the number of beams included on each antenna panel.

For example, the terminal device includes 3 antenna panels, namely an antenna panel 1, an antenna panel 2 and an antenna panel 3, wherein the antenna panel 1 includes 8 reception beams, the antenna panel 2 includes 4 reception beams, and the antenna panel 3 includes 8 reception beams. The network device generates therefrom first information for configuring 3 sets of reference signals. The 3 time-frequency resources are in one-to-one correspondence with the 3 groups of reference signals. The time-frequency resource 1 is used for the network device to transmit reference signals to the terminal device by using 8 transmission beams respectively. The time-frequency resource 2 is used for the network device to transmit reference signals to the terminal device by using 4 transmission beams respectively. The time-frequency resource 3 is used for the network device to transmit reference signals to the terminal device by using 8 transmission beams respectively. The transmission time interval between the last reference signal transmitted by the network device on the time-frequency resource 1 and the first reference signal transmitted by the network device on the time-frequency resource 2 is a first time interval. The transmission time interval between the last reference signal transmitted by the network device on the time-frequency resource 2 and the first reference signal transmitted by the network device on the time-frequency resource 3 is the first time interval. The terminal device receives the 1 st group of reference signals on the 1 st time-frequency resource by adopting the antenna panel 1. The terminal device receives the 2 nd group of reference signals on the 2 nd time-frequency resource by adopting the antenna panel 2. The terminal device receives the 3 rd set of reference signals on the 3 rd time-frequency resource using the antenna panel 3.

In some embodiments, the terminal device receives second information from the network device before the network device sends the first information to the terminal device, the second information indicating that the terminal device is in the first mode or the terminal device is in the second mode; or the terminal device sends third information to the network device, wherein the third information indicates that the terminal device is in the first mode or the terminal device is in the second mode.

In an example, when the terminal device accesses the network device, the terminal device sends capability information of the terminal device to the network device, where the capability information of the terminal device is used to indicate that the terminal device supports the first mode and/or the second mode.

In an example, when the terminal device accesses the network device, the terminal device sends capability information of the terminal device to the network device, where the capability information of the terminal device is used to indicate that the terminal device supports the first mode and/or the second mode. The network device may send indication information to the terminal device according to the capability information of the terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device is in the first mode or that the terminal device is in the second mode.

In an example, the terminal device may further determine, according to factors such as whether the current electric quantity is overheated or whether the terminal device needs to enter into an energy saving state, a mode that needs to be in now or a mode that is about to be in future, and at this time, the terminal device may actively report to the network device that the terminal device is in the first mode or the second mode.

Wherein, when the terminal device is in the first mode, there are non-activated antenna panels in the N antenna panels. Illustratively, the terminal device is configured to save power consumption, and the state of only one of the N antenna panels is an active state. When the terminal device is in the second mode, all of the N antenna panels are activated. The first mode according to the embodiment of the present application may be referred to as a performance mode, and the second mode may be referred to as a power saving mode, which is not limited thereto.

In addition, when the terminal equipment is in the first mode, the value of the first time interval is a first preset value, and when the terminal equipment is in the second mode, the value of the first time interval is a second preset value, and the first preset value is larger than the second preset value. Illustratively, the first preset value may be greater than the time required for antenna panel activation, typically longer, e.g., 2-3ms, and the second preset value may be greater than the time required for antenna panel switching between activated antenna panels, typically shorter, e.g., a few us. Therefore, when the terminal device is in the first mode, the network device may configure N time-frequency resources to implement that the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the i+1th group of reference signals is the first time interval, that is, the network device may implement that the terminal device switches the antenna panel reservation time.

Further, after S502, the terminal device may determine a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels by, but not limited to, the following manner. The target antenna panel is L of N antenna panels, and L is an integer. After determining the target antenna panel, the terminal device may deactivate other N-L antenna panels except the target antenna panel, so as to achieve power consumption saving of the terminal device.

Mode 1: the terminal equipment measures N groups of reference signals to obtain measurement results, and the terminal equipment determines a target antenna panel from N antenna panels according to the measurement results. Therefore, with the method provided in the above-described mode 1, the terminal device can autonomously determine the target antenna panel.

Illustratively, the terminal device measuring N sets of reference signals refers to the terminal device receiving with a respective receive beam for each reference signal in each set of reference signals and measuring for each received reference signal. Further, the terminal device may obtain a measurement result for each received reference signal, sort all obtained measurement results, and select an antenna panel where a reception beam corresponding to a measurement result with a signal quality of X bits preceding the measurement result is located as a target antenna panel, where X is a positive integer.

Mode 2: the terminal device transmits a measurement result obtained by measuring N sets of reference signals to the network device. The terminal device receives fourth information from the network device, the fourth information indicating a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels. Thus, with the method provided in the above manner 2, the network device indicates the target antenna panel for the terminal device.

Illustratively, the terminal device measuring N sets of reference signals refers to the terminal device receiving with a respective receive beam for each reference signal in each set of reference signals and measuring for each received reference signal. Further, the terminal device may obtain a measurement result for each received reference signal, and the terminal device may choose to report all obtained measurement results to the network device, or the terminal device may also choose to report some of the measurement results to the network device, for example, the terminal device selects a measurement result with a signal quality rank of Y bits in front to report to the network device, where Y is a positive integer.

The network device may determine the target antenna panel according to the measurement result reported by the terminal device, and send fourth information to the terminal device. The fourth information may include an index of the target antenna panel, or a beam index, for example. The antenna panel where the beam corresponding to the beam index is located is a target antenna panel. In addition, the network device can also combine other factors and measurement results reported by the terminal device to determine the target antenna panel.

Illustratively, the target antenna panel is at least two of the N antenna panels. Specifically, after the antenna panel training is completed, at least two antenna panels may be required to transmit data simultaneously. For example, in a multi-TRP scenario, the network device may choose to transmit two beams simultaneously for communication with the terminal device, which needs to transmit and receive two beams on different panels. For another example, in a single TRP scenario, the network device may also use two beams to communicate with the terminal device, and the terminal device may need to transmit and receive two beams on different panels, in order to ensure robustness of transmission, where the network device may assume that one of the beams may be blocked.

The embodiment shown in fig. 5 will be described with reference to specific examples.

Example 1: the terminal device is in a first mode. The terminal device comprises 3 antenna panels, namely an antenna panel 1, an antenna panel 2 and an antenna panel 3. The beam training process as shown in fig. 6 includes a P-0 process, a P-1 process, a P-2 process, and a P-3 process.

In the P-0 process, each set of reference signals includes three reference signals. The terminal equipment adopts the antenna panel 1 to receive the 1 st group of reference signals on the 1 st time-frequency resource, and the terminal equipment adopts the antenna panel 2 to receive the 2 nd group of reference signals on the 2 nd time-frequency resource. The terminal device receives the 3 rd set of reference signals on the 3 rd time-frequency resource using the antenna panel 3. The time interval between receiving the 1 st set of reference signals and receiving the 2 nd set of reference signals is a first time interval. At this time, the first time interval is used for the terminal device to switch from the antenna panel 1 to the antenna panel 2, and since the state of the antenna panel 2 is the inactive state, the value of the first time interval is a first preset value. The time interval between receiving the 2 nd set of reference signals and receiving the 3 rd set of reference signals is a first time interval. At this time, the first time interval is used for the terminal device to switch from the antenna panel 2 to the antenna panel 3, and since the state of the antenna panel 3 is the inactive state, the value of the first time interval is a first preset value.

As shown in fig. 7, when the terminal device receives the 1 st group of reference signals on the 1 st time-frequency resource using the antenna panel 1, the state of the antenna panel 1 is an active state, the state of the antenna panel 2 is an inactive state, and the state of the antenna panel 3 is an inactive state. When the terminal equipment receives the 2 nd group of reference signals on the 2 nd time-frequency resource by adopting the antenna panel 2, the state of the antenna panel 1 is in an inactive state, the state of the antenna panel 2 is in an active state, and the state of the antenna panel 3 is in an inactive state. When the terminal equipment receives the 3 rd group of reference signals on the 3 rd time-frequency resource by adopting the antenna panel 3, the state of the antenna panel 1 is in an inactive state, the state of the antenna panel 2 is in an inactive state, and the state of the antenna panel 3 is in an active state.

Through the P-0 procedure, the terminal device may switch the antenna panels according to the first time interval, thereby eliminating the need for all antenna panels to be in an active state. Further, through the P-0 process, the network device may indicate the target antenna panel for the terminal device, and the terminal device may deactivate the non-target antenna panel, so as to save power consumption of the terminal device.

In the P-1 process, the network equipment covers an area in a beam sending scanning mode, and the terminal equipment is respectively paired with the beam sending of the network equipment in a beam receiving scanning mode and performs measurement and reporting. The network device obtains an initial transmit beam based on the P1 procedure, and the terminal device obtains an initial receive beam through the P1 procedure (or network device indication).

In the P-2 process, the network device scans the fine transmit beam based on the initial transmit beam obtained in the P1 process, and the terminal device performs pairing measurement and reporting through the initial receive beam obtained in the P1 process (or indicated by the network device). The network device obtains a fine transmit beam based on the P2 procedure.

In the P-3 process, the network equipment obtains the fixed transmission of the fine-sending beam based on the P2 process, the terminal equipment obtains the coarse beam through the P2 process to scan the fine-receiving beam, and performs pairing measurement, and the terminal equipment obtains the fine-receiving beam of the terminal equipment through the P3 process.

Example 2: the terminal device is in the second mode. The terminal device comprises 3 antenna panels, namely an antenna panel 1, an antenna panel 2 and an antenna panel 3. As shown in fig. 8, each set of reference signals includes three reference signals. The terminal equipment adopts the antenna panel 1 to receive the 1 st group of reference signals on the 1 st time-frequency resource, and the terminal equipment adopts the antenna panel 2 to receive the 2 nd group of reference signals on the 2 nd time-frequency resource. The terminal device receives the 3 rd set of reference signals on the 3 rd time-frequency resource using the antenna panel 3. The time interval between receiving the 1 st set of reference signals and receiving the 2 nd set of reference signals is a first time interval. The time interval between receiving the 2 nd set of reference signals and receiving the 3 rd set of reference signals is a first time interval. At this time, the value of the first time interval is a second preset value. As shown in fig. 9, the state of the antenna panel 1 is the active state, the state of the antenna panel 2 is the active state, and the state of the antenna panel 3 is the active state, i.e., three antenna panels are always in the active state.

Through the P-0 process, the network device can indicate the target antenna panel for the terminal device, and the terminal device can deactivate the non-target antenna panel, so that the beam training process is optimized, and the power consumption of the terminal device can be saved.

Based on this, the embodiment of the application provides a communication method, which is used for effectively saving the power consumption of the terminal equipment when the switching between different beams of different antenna panels is realized. According to the embodiment of the application, different beam training modes are designed, so that the comprehension of complexity, power consumption, heat dissipation and system performance of the comprehensive terminal is achieved. The terminal device includes N antenna panels, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2, and the method shown in fig. 10 is applicable to the uplink beam training process, and the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 10 may be applied before the U1 process. The method comprises the following steps:

S1001: the network device sends first information to the terminal device, the first information being used to configure the N sets of reference signals. The transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith set of reference signals and the first reference signal in the i+1th set of reference signals is a first time interval, where the first time interval is the time required for the terminal device to switch from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, and i is a positive integer. The first information may be carried by RRC signaling, for example.

S1002: the terminal equipment adopts N antenna panels to transmit N groups of reference signals, and the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals. Accordingly, S1002 may be further described as the network device receiving N sets of reference signals.

Exemplary, the ith group of reference signals includes K _i And reference signals. The network equipment receives K adopted by the terminal equipment on the ith time-frequency resource _i The terminal equipment adopts K on the ith antenna panel on the ith time-frequency resource _i The reference signals are transmitted by the respective transmit beams. The (i+1) -th group of reference signals includes K _i+1 And reference signals. The network equipment receives K adopted by the terminal equipment on the (i+1) th time-frequency resource _i+1 The terminal equipment adopts K on the (i+1) th antenna panel on the (i+1) th time-frequency resource according to the reference signals respectively transmitted by the transmission beams _i+1 The reference signals are transmitted by the respective transmit beams. Wherein the last reference in the ith set of reference signalsThe transmission time interval of the reference signal and the 1 st reference signal in the i+1 group of reference signals is the first time interval. Wherein K is _i And K _i+1 Is a positive integer.

For example, the terminal device includes 3 antenna panels, namely an antenna panel 1, an antenna panel 2 and an antenna panel 3, wherein the antenna panel 1 includes 8 transmission beams, the antenna panel 2 includes 4 transmission beams, and the antenna panel 3 includes 8 transmission beams. The network device generates therefrom first information for configuring 3 sets of reference signals. The 3 time-frequency resources are in one-to-one correspondence with the 3 groups of reference signals. The time-frequency resource 1 is used for the terminal equipment to respectively transmit reference signals to the network equipment by adopting 8 transmission beams. The time-frequency resource 2 is used for the terminal device to transmit reference signals to the network device by using 4 transmission beams respectively. The time-frequency resource 3 is used for the terminal device to transmit reference signals to the network device by using 8 transmission beams respectively. The transmission time interval between the last reference signal transmitted by the terminal equipment on the time-frequency resource 1 and the first reference signal transmitted by the terminal equipment on the time-frequency resource 2 is a first time interval. The transmission time interval between the last reference signal transmitted by the terminal equipment on the time-frequency resource 2 and the first reference signal transmitted by the terminal equipment on the time-frequency resource 3 is the first time interval. The network device receives the 1 st set of reference signals on the 1 st time-frequency resource. The network device receives the 2 nd set of reference signals on the 2 nd time frequency resource. The network device receives the 3 rd set of reference signals on the 3 rd time frequency resource.

In some embodiments, the terminal device receives second information from the network device before the network device sends the first information to the terminal device, the second information indicating that the terminal device is in the first mode or the terminal device is in the second mode; or the terminal device sends third information to the network device, wherein the third information indicates that the terminal device is in the first mode or the terminal device is in the second mode. Wherein, when the terminal device is in the first mode, there are non-activated antenna panels in the N antenna panels. Illustratively, the terminal device is configured to save power consumption, and the state of only one of the N antenna panels is an active state. When the terminal device is in the second mode, all of the N antenna panels are activated. The first mode according to the embodiment of the present application may be referred to as a performance mode, and the second mode may be referred to as a power saving mode, which is not limited thereto.

In some embodiments, the network device measures N sets of reference signals to obtain measurements, and the network device determines a target antenna panel from the N antenna panels based on the measurements. The network device sends fourth information to the terminal device, the fourth information indicating a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels. Thus, with the method provided in the above-described mode 1, the network device indicates the target antenna panel for the terminal device.

Illustratively, the network device measuring N sets of reference signals refers to the network device receiving with a respective receive beam for each reference signal in each set of reference signals and measuring for each received reference signal. Further, the network device may obtain a measurement result for each received reference signal, rank all obtained measurement results, and select an antenna panel where a reception beam corresponding to a measurement result with a signal quality rank of the first X bits is located as a target antenna panel from among the obtained measurement results, where X is a positive integer. In addition, the network device may also determine the target antenna panel in conjunction with other factors and measurements.

The fourth information may include an index of the target antenna panel, or a beam index, for example. The antenna panel where the beam corresponding to the beam index is located is a target antenna panel.

The target antenna panel is L of N antenna panels, and L is an integer. After determining the target antenna panel, the terminal device may deactivate other N-L antenna panels except the target antenna panel, so as to achieve power consumption saving of the terminal device.

It will be appreciated that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the network device and the terminal device include corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules that perform the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the elements and method steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application scenario and design constraints imposed on the solution.

Fig. 11 and 12 are schematic structural diagrams of possible communication devices according to embodiments of the present application. These communication devices may be used to implement the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiments, so that the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments may also be implemented. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device may be the terminal device 130 or the terminal device 140 shown in fig. 1, or may be the radio access network device 120 shown in fig. 1, or may be a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal device or the network device.

As shown in fig. 11, the communication apparatus 1100 includes a processing unit 1110 and a transceiving unit 1120. The communication device 1100 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the embodiments of the methods shown in fig. 5 and 10.

When the communication apparatus 1100 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiments shown in fig. 5 and 10: the processing unit 1110 invokes the transceiver unit 1120 to perform: receiving first information, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, the first time interval is the time required by the terminal equipment to switch from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, i is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and i is a positive integer; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; and transmitting the N groups of reference signals by adopting the N antenna panels, wherein the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.

When the communication apparatus 1100 is used to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiments shown in fig. 5 and 10: the processing unit 1110 invokes the transceiver unit 1120 to perform: transmitting first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, and when the terminal device is required to switch from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, i is a positive integer, and is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; and transmitting the N groups of reference signals, wherein the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.

The more detailed description of the processing unit 1110 and the transceiver unit 1120 may be directly obtained by referring to the related description in the method embodiments shown in fig. 5 and fig. 10, which is not repeated herein.

As shown in fig. 12, the communication device 1200 includes a processor 1210 and an interface circuit 1220. Processor 1210 and interface circuit 1220 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the interface circuit 1220 may be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1200 may further include a memory 1230 for storing instructions to be executed by the processor 1210 or for storing input data required by the processor 1210 to execute instructions or for storing data generated after the processor 1210 executes instructions.

When the communication device 1200 is used to implement the methods shown in fig. 5 and 10, the processor 1210 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 1110, and the interface circuit 1220 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 1120.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment chip realizes the functions of the terminal equipment in the embodiment of the method. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device, and the information is sent to the terminal device by the network device; alternatively, the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (e.g., radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal device, which the terminal device sends to the network device.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the network equipment, the network equipment chip realizes the functions of the network equipment in the embodiment of the method. The network device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and the information is sent to the network device by the terminal device; alternatively, the network device chip sends information to other modules (e.g., radio frequency modules or antennas) in the network device, which the network device sends to the terminal device.

It is to be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

The method steps in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), flash Memory, read-Only Memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable Programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may reside in a network device or terminal device. The processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a network device or terminal device.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable apparatus. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer program or instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium, e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, tape; optical media, such as digital video discs (digital video disc, DVD); but also semiconductor media such as solid state disks (solid state drive, SSD).

In the various embodiments of the application, if there is no specific description or logical conflict, terms and/or descriptions between the various embodiments are consistent and may reference each other, and features of the various embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. In the text description of the present application, the character "/", generally indicates that the associated object is an or relationship; in the formulas of the present application, the character "/" indicates that the front and rear associated objects are a "division" relationship.

It will be appreciated that the various numerical numbers referred to in the embodiments of the present application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The sequence number of each process does not mean the sequence of the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined according to the function and the internal logic.

Claims

A method of communication, the method comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a terminal device receives first information, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in an ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in an (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, the first time interval is the time required by the terminal device to switch from an ith antenna panel to an (i+1) th antenna panel, i is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and i is a positive integer; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

the terminal equipment adopts N antenna panels to transmit the N groups of reference signals, and the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.
The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

the terminal equipment receives second information from the network equipment, wherein the second information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a first mode or the terminal equipment is in a second mode; or the terminal equipment sends third information to the network equipment, wherein the third information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a first mode or the terminal equipment is in a second mode;

Wherein, when the terminal device is in the first mode, inactive antenna panels exist in the N antenna panels; the N antenna panels are all activated when the terminal device is in the second mode.
The method of claim 2, wherein the first time interval is a first predetermined value when the terminal device is in the first mode, and wherein the first time interval is a second predetermined value when the terminal device is in the second mode, the first predetermined value being greater than the second predetermined value.
A method according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment measures the N groups of reference signals to obtain measurement results;

and the terminal equipment determines a target antenna panel from the N antenna panels according to the measurement result.
A method according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the method further comprises:

the terminal equipment sends a measurement result to the network equipment; the measurement result is obtained by the terminal equipment measuring the N groups of reference signals;

the terminal device receives fourth information from the network device, the fourth information indicating a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels.
The method of claim 4 or 5, wherein the target antenna panel is L of the N antenna panels, L being an integer, the method further comprising:

the terminal equipment deactivates the other N-L antenna panels except the target antenna panel.
The method of any one of claims 1-6, further comprising:

the terminal device transmits fifth information to the network device, the fifth information indicating the number N of antenna panels included in the terminal device and the number of beams included on each antenna panel.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

the network equipment sends first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the sending time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, and when the terminal equipment is required to be switched from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, i is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and i is a positive integer; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

the network device transmits the N groups of reference signals on the N time-frequency resources, and the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.
The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising:

the network device sends second information to the terminal device, wherein the second information indicates that the terminal device is in a first mode or the terminal device is in a second mode; or the network equipment receives third information sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the third information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a first mode or the terminal equipment is in a second mode;

wherein, when the terminal device is in the first mode, inactive antenna panels exist in the N antenna panels; the N antenna panels are all activated when the terminal device is in the second mode.
The method of claim 9, wherein the first time interval is a first predetermined value when the terminal device is in the first mode, and wherein the first time interval is a second predetermined value when the terminal device is in the second mode, the first predetermined value being greater than the second predetermined value.
The method of any one of claims 8-10, wherein the method further comprises:

The network equipment receives a measurement result from the terminal equipment, wherein the measurement result is obtained by measuring the N groups of reference signals by the terminal equipment;

the network device sends fourth information to the terminal device, the fourth information indicating a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels.
The method of claim 11, wherein the target antenna panel is L of the N antenna panels, L being an integer.
The method of any one of claims 8-12, further comprising:

the network device receives fifth information from the terminal device, the fifth information indicating the number N of antenna panels included by the terminal device and the number of beams included on each antenna panel.
A communication device, comprising a transceiver unit and a processing unit:

the processing unit calls the transceiver unit to execute:

receiving first information, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, the first time interval is the time required by the terminal equipment to switch from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, i is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N, and i is a positive integer; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

And transmitting the N groups of reference signals by adopting the N antenna panels, wherein the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.
The apparatus as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

the transceiver unit is configured to receive second information from the network device, where the second information indicates that the apparatus is in a first mode or the apparatus is in a second mode; or, sending third information to the network device, the third information indicating whether the apparatus is in the first mode or the apparatus is in the second mode;

wherein, when the device is in the first mode, there are inactive ones of the N antenna panels; the N antenna panels are all activated when the device is in the second mode.
The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first time interval is a first predetermined value when the apparatus is in the first mode, and wherein the first time interval is a second predetermined value when the apparatus is in the second mode, the first predetermined value being greater than the second predetermined value.
The apparatus of any one of claims 14-16, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

The processing unit is used for measuring the N groups of reference signals to obtain measurement results;

and the receiving and transmitting unit is used for determining a target antenna panel from the N antenna panels according to the measurement result.
The apparatus of any one of claims 14-16, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

the receiving and transmitting unit is used for transmitting a measurement result to the network equipment; the measurement results are obtained by the device measuring the N sets of reference signals; fourth information from the network device is received, the fourth information indicating a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels.
The apparatus of claim 17 or 18, wherein the target antenna panel is L of the N antenna panels, L being an integer, the apparatus further comprising:

the processing unit is used for deactivating other N-L antenna panels except the target antenna panel.
The apparatus of any one of claims 14-19, further comprising:

the transceiver unit is configured to send fifth information to the network device, where the fifth information indicates the number N of antenna panels included in the apparatus and the number of beams included on each antenna panel.
A communication device, comprising a transceiver unit and a processing unit:

the processing unit calls the transceiver unit to execute:

transmitting first information to a terminal device, wherein the first information is used for configuring N groups of reference signals, the transmission time interval between the last reference signal in the ith group of reference signals and the first reference signal in the (i+1) th group of reference signals is a first time interval, and when the terminal device is required to switch from the ith antenna panel to the (i+1) th antenna panel, i is a positive integer, and is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to N; the number of the antenna panels is N, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;

and transmitting the N groups of reference signals, wherein the N antenna panels are in one-to-one correspondence with the N groups of reference signals.
The apparatus as recited in claim 21, further comprising:

the receiving and transmitting unit is configured to send second information to the terminal device, where the second information indicates that the terminal device is in a first mode or the terminal device is in a second mode; or receiving third information sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the third information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a first mode or the terminal equipment is in a second mode;

Wherein, when the terminal device is in the first mode, inactive antenna panels exist in the N antenna panels; the N antenna panels are all activated when the terminal device is in the second mode.
The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the first time interval is a first predetermined value when the terminal device is in the first mode, and wherein the first time interval is a second predetermined value when the terminal device is in the second mode, the first predetermined value being greater than the second predetermined value.
The apparatus of any one of claims 21-23, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

the receiving and transmitting unit is configured to receive a measurement result from the terminal device, where the measurement result is obtained by the terminal device measuring the N groups of reference signals;

the transceiver unit is configured to send fourth information to the terminal device, where the fourth information indicates a target antenna panel of the N antenna panels.
The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the target antenna panel is L of the N antenna panels, L being an integer.
The apparatus of any one of claims 21-25, further comprising:

the transceiver unit is configured to receive fifth information from the terminal device, where the fifth information indicates a number N of antenna panels included in the terminal device and a number of beams included in each antenna panel.
A communication device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 1 to 13.
A communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from other communication devices than the communication device and transmitting signals from the processor to the processor or sending signals from the processor to other communication devices than the communication device, the processor being configured to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 13 by logic circuitry or executing code instructions.
A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implement the method of any of claims 1 to 13.